[csking]

I've been keeping a low tech 46 gallon tank for nearly a year now. It's doing quite well and I'm happy with the plants I have in it. Only a few different species, but growth is great and my Elephant Nose couldn't be happier. I decided I wanted to try a bigger tank with more light so I could grow a bigger variety of plants. I've been lurking your forum for sometime trying to absorb as much knowledge as I could before starting. Now that I'm up and running I finally decided to join the forum to show what I've done, and seek help because I am sure I will need as much as I can get while my new tank matures and balances.

I went with the following components for my setup:

75 Gallon Tank
3 Aquatic Life T5HO dual light fixtures
Pressurized CO2
Eco-Complete Substrate
Marine Land C-360
Marine Land Magnum 350
Neptune Systems Aqua Controller Lite with pH and Temp Probes
DIY Ferts for NPK, Flourish Comprehensive, Trace, and Iron for everything else.

I started planting the tank on November 30th, here is a brief visual log of the progress I have made since the start.

Getting the eco-complete in.

Adding the Pagoda Rock, 50lbs, I liked the look of the rock very much, couldn't hand pick the rocks as I had to special order them from the pet store so I worked with what I had.

12 Days after planting, Starting to get a little algae, Nitrates were low. Added ferts to get things back in order. Wishing I had more plants!

16 Days in. The algae is getting worse. I've been running a 6 hour photo period since day one. I've decided to turn off one of the lighting fixtures to drop my total WPG from 4.3 to 2.88. Hopefully this will help. Also pulled some plants out of my low tech tank to help with excess nutrients. Crypto Spiralis(spelling?) and narrow leaf chain swords.

So there you have it. I'm still waiting for some new plants, There are quite a few more exotic ones I would like to try, but I want to make sure I can keep the water algae free before I destroy several expensive new plants. I think if I can successfully get my HC to take off and get the BGA under control I will start adding more plants.

I'll keep you updated, hopefully once a week if I can... And I will definitely come here seeking help when I get everything out of whack!

Thank you all so much for all your posts, I've learned a great deal over the past year, and I hope to pick up even more knowledge as I move into this new project. Glad to have finally joined you!

 

[UDGags]

Nice start so far. I think it will look really solid once it's all grown in.

I'm actually surprised how much I like the layout with your main rocks being dead center. I think the one in the right of the pictures makes it work.

 

[Conrad283]

Looks great. Is that the 75 gallon from Petsmart?

 

[HybridHerp]

my only concern with the hardscape is that it might look short once the plants start growing up more.
But it looks good so far man. WHat livestock are you thinking for this?

 

[Centromochlus]

Possible inspiration?: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/yourtanks.php?n=shayf&do=view&id=1941

 

[farrenator]

Nice start!

6 t5ho bulbs is a ton of light. I have the same tank and 4 bulbs t5ho. They hang 12" above the top of the tank and I only run all 4 bulbs for about 2 hours. For the rest of the time (8 hour total photoperiod) I only run 2 bulbs. If I run all 4 all the time it is an algae-fest.

 

[Sethjohnson30]

Nice start!

6 t5ho bulbs is a ton of light. I have the same tank and 4 bulbs t5ho. They hang 12" above the top of the tank and I only run all 4 bulbs for about 2 hours. For the rest of the time (8 hour total photoperiod) I only run 2 bulbs. If I run all 4 all the time it is an algae-fest.

I agree 6 bulbs is nuts! Four bulbs for two hours is pushing it. I run 2 for 10 hours a day

 

[izabella87]

Very nice rocks and placement